


Jeff and Annie short fic collection

by PepperF



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-08-24
Packaged: 2018-05-16 11:45:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5827393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperF/pseuds/PepperF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is where I will put all my Jeff/Annie Community short fics. These are all unconnected and may not be in the same timeline / universe.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prompt fic 1: I'll share the blankets with you.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Bethany for all her encouragement and eternal willingness to polish these into shape!

Jeff lay in bed and tried to tell himself he was warm enough to sleep. He had extra blankets, a sweater, he was a tough, manly man with a high metabolism, and he could do this. He wasn't cold, he wasn't cold, he wasn't cold...

There was a tiny noise—friendly, domestic, out of place with the creaking of the house or the snowstorm outside. He lifted his head: Annie was standing in the doorway.

"I'm too cold to sleep," she said. "Can we share?"

Even on the brink of hypothermia, he hesitated.

"We can say it was a matter of life and death," she added.

Oh, _fine_. He lifted the blankets. "Come on."

Annie practically dove into the bed with him, and they spent a few minutes wriggling into a comfortable position, finally ending up with Annie face-to-chest with him, their arms wrapped around each other and knees nudging together. It was a little awkward, but he was warm at last, thank god.

"I'm beginning to get why this place was such a steal," he said into the top of her head. "Seriously, have they never heard of central heating?"

"Well, it was built in the 1920s," she reminded him. "So, probably not." She pondered it. "I wonder when it was invented?"

He grunted. "Next time, we're going to a nice, modern hotel."

"You didn't have to come." She snuggled closer.

"I told you, my phone ran out of power—"

"You know iMessages have a read receipt, right?"

He fell silent. "I didn't want to make it weird," he said, finally.

"Why would it be weird? I'm _really_ grateful you came. I had visions of slipping on a patch of ice and dying alone in the snow..." She shivered.

Of their own accord, his arms tightened around her. He'd had those visions too, which was why, when she'd texted everyone to warn them the snowpocalypse was on its way and that they shouldn't travel, he'd checked the skies and decided to risk it. "Anyway, I was already halfway here," he said, which at least was true. Even then, he'd barely made it in time. "If I’d turned back, I could just as easily have ended up stranded somewhere in my car, and since you brought all the supplies up here—"

" _Thank you_ ," she said, squeezing him. "Now you say 'you're welcome'."

He gave it some thought. "You're welcome," he muttered.

"Good. Now stop worrying and go to sleep."

With a resigned sigh, Jeff did as he was told.

\---

(There's an even better way of keeping each other warm, of course, but it takes them another couple of days to figure that out.)


	2. Prompt fic 2: I just came home to you crying while watching a movie, please tell me what's going on.

She's been off all week, so when he comes home to find her sobbing harder than he's ever heard, it's only natural that he goes into full-on panic mode.

"What is it? What's wrong?!"

She can't even speak, so he gathers her close and lets her cry into his coat. This is not what he pictured life would be like when he and Annie moved in together. He tries to work out what he did wrong, or what disaster might be looming. It's not a special date—her birthday isn't until December, their anniversary is in two weeks, and it's not Valentine's Day. The other possibilities—her parents, something thoughtless he said, unexpected pregnancy… shit, what if she's sick?—set his heart rate rocketing with anxiety.

Finally, she manages to get some words out.

"It's—it's this muh-movie!" she wails, waving at the screen—which, now he notices, is on pause.

He frowns. "What about it?"

"It's so saaaaaaaaaaad!"

She collapses against him with renewed sobs.

Jeff's frown deepens. "What?" Okay, that came out sharper than he'd intended. "This is about a _movie_?"

She turns her head, blinking at him through mascara-blackened eyes. "W-what?"

"Well, you're all—" He waves at her. "Over a movie? What the hell, Annie?!"

She sits up, and now she's frowning, although the effect is lessened when she grabs a tissue to blow her nose and wipe her eyes. "What? Were you hoping I was upset about something serious?"

"No, of course not, but I—Jesus Christ, Annie, you scared the crap out of me! I thought you were, I don't know, _dying_ or something!"

"What? No!" she yelps. "Of course not—what are you talking about?"

"Well, you've been funny all week, and now this—"

"What d'you mean, _I've_ been funny? You're the one who's been acting all skittish!"

"What?"

"Oh, don't give me that," she snaps. "You've been acting weird all week. I've been giving you some space, you jerk!"

"But I—"

He stops. Okay, so, maybe he'd been a little distracted this week. Maybe he had a few things on his mind. And maybe he wasn't as good at concealing it as he'd thought.

"Crap," he sighs, rubbing the back of his neck.

Her face softens instantly. "You know you can tell me anything, right?" she says, continuing in a rush: "And that you don't have to tell me anything, but sometimes it's better to share things and then we can work out a solution together, you know how much I love to solve problems, but no pressure, I'll love you no matter what. Okay?"

He closes his eyes. Opens them again. "And the movie?"

"Oh, I had the TV on in the background and it just came on—it's an Alan Rickman one, so I decided to watch it in his honor, but it's so _sad_ because his character is dead, and his girlfriend can't stop grieving for him so he comes back as a ghost to comfort her, and he brings all his obnoxious ghost friends... and that really makes it sound cheesy but it's not. Anyway, I had to pause it, because I was crying so hard."

"Oh." Yeah, now he feels kind of dumb.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really. Not yet," he says. Because he really, really doesn't want to show his cards yet—not like this. Not until their anniversary dinner. He has plans, big plans, and he wants it to be perfect. "Soon," he promises. "It's fine, it's just... can we just forget about it for now, and I'll try to stop acting weird?"

"Okay," she says. "Just so long as you know you can talk to me."

"I do," he assures her, grateful for her patience. He leans forward and gives her a swift kiss. "Want some company?" He nods towards the TV screen.

"Yes please," she sighs. Jeff shucks his coat and makes himself more comfortable on the couch. Annie grabs the box of tissues and settles in, and Jeff puts his arm around her. It's nice. Cozy. He'd kind of like to do it for the rest of his life.

They have to pause the movie twice more before the end because she's crying too hard to see.


	3. Prompt fic 3: I don't wanna get up—you're comfy.

At eight-and-a-half months pregnant, Annie was uncomfortable a lot of the time. As a consequence, she wasn't getting much sleep—sure, she was cat-napping (ALL the time), but a full night's sleep was but a fond memory. Normally, she only required six hours, and could function on less for quite some time. 'Normally' being 'when she wasn't growing an entire other human being'.

So when she woke up slowly on the first day of her maternity leave feeling deliciously rested, she figured fate or karma had finally given her a break—or maybe exhaustion had won out. Either way, she wasn't going to argue with her luck. She almost comfortable, too, in her favorite position: on her side, with pillows supporting her back, her head on Jeff's shoulder, and her arm and leg wrapped around him like he was a giant cushion. He was awake—she could tell by the tiny clicking noises of his phone—but apparently perfectly content to stay put. He must be using his phone right-handed, she realized, as his (dominant) left arm was wrapped around her.

"Mmm," she said.

Jeff's phone was lowered to the bed. "Hey there, Rip Van Winkle," he said. "Let's see, what did you miss… well, our kid just started college—"

She was in too good a mood, so she only hit him lightly. "What time is it?" she asked, stretching and rolling onto her back.

"Uh…"

She opened her eyes. "Jeff," she said, immediately suspicious.

"It's just coming up on ten AM," he admitted.

"Jeff! You're supposed to be at work!"

He shrugged. "I called in sick," he said.

"Jeff!" She struggled into a sitting position. "Why would you do that?"

"I didn't want to get up," he said. When she glared at him, he gave her that damned smile—the one that had resulted in this whole situation in the first place. "You were comfy."

Awww!

No—no—bad Jeff! He wasn't allowed to do that to her!

"You can't just call in sick because I'm asleep on you," she said. "That's ridiculous." Jeff rolled his eyes. "What if they needed you?"

"What if I was really sick?" he countered. "Would I have to go in then, just in case they needed me?"

"No, of course not—that's a false equivalence."

"That's a moralistic fallacy," he said blithely. "Just because you think I shouldn't doesn't mean it wasn't justified." He stroked back her hair. "You needed to sleep. You were exhausted." Then he played his ace. "Think of the baby."

Annie flopped back to the bed, and crossed her arms. "I hate lawyers," she grumbled. "They're jerks."

Jeff swung his legs out of bed. "Then you shouldn't have married one, babe."

"You weren't a lawyer when we got married!" she said to his retreating back.

It was a familiar argument; they'd had variations of it for almost as long as they'd known each other.

Jeff stuck his head back around the bathroom door, toothbrush in hand. "I might have _temporarily_ not been a lawyer," he said, "but I've always been a jerk. Now get up and have breakfast. Do you know what time it is?" He shook his head and tutted disapprovingly.

Grinning, she threw her pillow at him.


	4. Prompt fic 4: I don't wanna get up—you're comfy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to Bethany for betaing this!

…hands…

…in his hair…

…stroking… gentle… nice…

Jeff hummed, moving his head slightly, so… ahhhh, yes, right there. He sighed happily, drifting off again…

There was a soft giggle, and a shot of adrenaline woke him properly. Before opening his eyes, he ran through a quick mental checklist: where was he, who was touching him, and what did they want? He relaxed again when the answers came back: study room couch, Annie, apparently to stroke his hair and giggle at him while he was asleep. He cracked open one eye.

"…" he said. He cleared his throat and tried again. "…t's so funny?"

"You," she said. When he frowned, she smiled. "Not funny-ha-ha," she said. "Just… I'm not used to seeing you this relaxed. It's kind of sweet."

"Ugh. Sweet, relaxed—you make me sound like a kitten," he grumbled, as his memory returned. The all-night study session. The exam. Coming back to the study room to collapse. And then nothing, until he woke up with his head cradled in—apparently—Annie's lap, which he was carefully trying not to think about, or to notice that he'd wrapped a hand possessively around her knee. He couldn't be held accountable for his actions, he told the imaginary jury. He'd been sleep-deprived and loopy, and then he'd actually been asleep, so he couldn't be convicted of deliberately snuggling with Annie. Anyway, it was perfectly safe, because the whole group was…

…not there anymore. Huh.

"They went home," said Annie, when he turned his head to see the rest of the room.

"Oh…kay. And you're still here because…?"

"Jeff," she chided. When he just blinked at her, she ran her hand over his hair again (and goddamn that felt nice). "You looked so comfy, I didn't want to wake you."

He was comfy—far too comfy. He knew he should get up, now that he was awake, but for some reason, it wasn't happening—because although one anxious voice in his head was telling him that staying here like this was bad and dangerous, the entire rest of him was chanting _stay, stay, stay_.

"Besides, you looked like you needed the rest," she added, with the cheerful insouciance of the only-needs-six-hours-to-be-fresh-as-a-daisy. He had needed the rest, and—depressingly—it wasn't due to pulling a week of all-nighters or partying too hard, but simply because one single, solitary night of studying had really taken it out of him. God, getting older _sucked_.

"So you decided to, what, just sit here and stroke my hair? Creepy much?"

Annie rolled her eyes. "No, Jeff—I was reading," she said, and held up the book in her other hand. "The hair-stroking was entirely incidental."

Jeff reached for the book, and she let him take it, marking her place with his finger. " _Animal Farm_. Just a little light reading?"

"Britta lent it to me. It's pretty good, actually. A little outdated now."

Yeah, he'd read it once—mainly to impress women like Britta, and because it was under 100 pages. He'd worked his way through quite a few of the shorter classics for similar reasons. He handed it back. "You've nearly finished it," he noted.

"Mm-hmm. It's been good, actually—having an excuse to sit still for once."

"Oh."

Her fingers teased lightly in the hair at the nape of his neck. "It'll only take me ten, fifteen more minutes to finish," she added, casually.

"Hmm."

"So, you know, you'd be doing me a favor—"

"I could stay," he offered.

"Only if it's not too much trouble—I mean, I'm sure you've got important things to do—"

"No, no—I don't mind," he said. "I can put them off. The important things. For a while, you know." He settled down. After all, if he was helping Annie out, that was a perfectly valid reason to stay.

(It took her half an hour to finish the book, but she kept getting distracted when his thumb started absent-mindedly drawing circles on the inside of her knee. But that was only to be expected, and meant nothing.)


	5. Studies in Aortic Resilience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's gonna give him a heart attack, one of these days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Spotted the first line on a prompt list, and this sprang into my head. Thanks to Bethany for checking it wasn't broke. :)
> 
> It literally wasn't until I'd posted that I realised where the idea came from: [this adorable little ficlet](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6211255/chapters/16775752) by randomrambles. So credit for the idea goes to her. :)

"I'm pregnant."

Jeff froze. His eyes scanned Annie's earnest, wide-eyed face--and then lifted to where Troy and Abed were watching them from around the corner. 

Annie might have a poker face to die for, but Troy and Abed were snickering like third graders who'd just heard a fart gag. 

He started breathing again. "Happy March 32nd to you, too, Annie," he said, wryly.

Annie broke out into a broad grin, and she bounced slightly on her toes. "I had you going for a second, didn't I?" she teased.

"Yeah, sure you did," he said, rolling his eyes.

She nudged him with her elbow as they fell into step. "Don't give me that, Jeff Winger--I saw your face. You looked like your life was flashing before your eyes." 

"You know you kinda have to be sleeping with someone to give them a pregnancy scare, right?"

"Well, it seemed to scare you just fine."

"I was not _scared_ , I was _concerned_..."

Troy and Abed snickered harder.


	6. Always The Last To Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> From J/A Appreciation Week 2016: AU fic

Annie hurries into the meeting room five minutes late, looking flushed and rumpled, her hair not quite in its usual state of pristine perfection. She launches straight into speech, as if she's trying to distract them. "Oh, you're all here, good, I wanted to talk to you about career fair. I've had some ideas about how to bring the focus onto some of the less-successful courses without making Greendale look like a total disaster zone..."

Britta's suspicions, however, are not fully raised until Jeff strolls in a few seconds later. He's loose-limbed, his shirt is buttoned wrong, and he's smirking like the cat who ate the canary—and she knows that look. She's been _responsible_ for that look, in the (long-distant) past. She sits up straight, glancing between Jeff and Annie. "Oh! _Oh_!" She waves her finger between the two of them. "You two! You're...!"

Annie gives her an irritated look, and then turns on Jeff—whose smirk only grows. "Jeff! You did that on purpose," she accuses.

He shrugs, so laid-back he might as well be horizontal. Britta wants to gag. "Hey, I can't help it if I'm irresistible."

"Oh my _god_ ," says Britta, revolted. "Ugh!"

"C'mon, Annie, she's figured it out." Jeff puts out a hand and makes a beckoning motion.

Annie looks at Britta, and her shoulders slump. "Dammit," she mutters. She grabs her bag and quickly pulls a twenty from her wallet, slapping it grudgingly into Jeff's palm.

"Thank you."

"What—you—what?" demands Britta, not very coherently. "Why are you—did you BET on us? On when we'd work out this—this disgusting but inevitable development?"

Jeff gives her a smug, amused look. "Well, not exactly," he says, and looks around the table. "Pay up."

Frankie and Elroy grumble, but they also pull out twenties and slide them across the table towards Jeff. Chang takes his wallet out hesitantly.

"Chang, you weren't in on the bet," Annie tells him, giving Jeff—who clearly wasn't going to say anything—another glare.

"Oh. Right. Because I don't welch, but I'm kind of broke right now, so..."

"It's fine, Chang, you don't need to give Jeff anything."

And the pieces finally fall into place. "Wait. You bet on ME?" demands Britta, glaring around at everyone, now.

"Well, yes," says Annie, matter-of-factly. "And Jeff won, but only because he cheated."

"You knew I picked this week in the pool," says Jeff. "If you didn't want to fool around in my office, you could have—"

"Ewww!" Britta claps her hands over her ears. "Blech! Blergh!"

"And if that little performance in my car last week wasn't a last-ditch attempt to nudge the odds in _your_ favor, I don't know what was."

Annie blushes furiously, and tosses her head. "I don't know what you're talking about," she says, unconvincingly.

"On behalf of those of us who've worked out your code, may I say, can we please close this conversation and move on?" asks Frankie, looking pained. "Or are we going to have to discuss inappropriate conduct on school grounds at your next evaluation, Jeff?"

Jeff raises his hands. "I'm done," he says. He looks down at the money in his hand. "You know, we definitely need to recruit more people to join this group. It was a lot more profitable when there were seven of us."

"Oh my _god_ , I can't believe I'm dating you," grumbles Annie, slouching in her seat. "You're such a jerk."

Britta looks around suspiciously. "So if Annie had last week, and Jeff has this one…"

"I was disappointed you didn't work it out two weeks ago," says Frankie. "Both fiscally, and on behalf of my faith in your intelligence."

"Uh… thanks?" says Britta. She's never really been sure how to take Frankie (the dean never did explain whether she was _above_ or _below_ them). She looks at Elroy.

"I didn't think you'd get it until next week," he says, unapologetically. "I mean, you people are always acting out in one way or another, who can tell what's going on? Honestly, I thought Annie and the dean had something going on until recently."

"What?" snaps Annie, sitting up.

"I worked it out as soon as I saw them," declares Frankie. "They were holding hands. It wasn't exactly subtle." She looks at Britta. "You've known them for, what, six years now?"

Britta sticks her tongue out at the whole group.

"Look, okay, it's out of the bag now that Britta knows, so can we just get back to the meeting?" asks Annie. 

Jeff leans back in his seat, putting his hands behind his head. He's radiating smugness, and it's honestly a toss-up whether that's due to whatever he and Annie were up to in his office ( _ugh_ , Britta's going to assume it was just kissing and no one can make her think otherwise), or because he won the bet.

"Right. The career fair," says Frankie. "You have the floor, Annie."

Annie straightens. "Well, I thought if we could—"

"Wait," says Chang. "Did Annie just say that she's dating _Jeff_?"

Everyone groans.


End file.
